Finding Journal Articles in Japanese

Full Text databases

Although no comprehensive full text databases in Japanese are available, there are an increasing number of full text articles available in individual institutional repositories.

Bibliographical citation databases

Bibliographical citations can be searched in major databases, such as:

  • CiNii Articles [SOAS ID/PW required] A database of journal articles published in Japan. Some articles are available in full-text including JAIRO articles. User guide
  • 雑誌記事索引集成データベース [SOAS ID/PW required] Index database for Japanese magazine and periodicals from the Meiji Era to the present.
  • NDL-Search [国立国会図書館サーチ]The National Diet Library's journal/magazine index. Select 雑誌・論文.
  • NDL-OPAC The National Diet Library’s journal/magazine index.  Select 雑誌記事索引の検索 .

Subject based bibliographical citation databases are also available, such as:

Tips for starting research
  • WebcatPlus provides information with tables of contents of books. Good for finding book chapters.
  • CiNii Articles contains 1,500,000 citations which include 400,000 full-text. The database can be used mostly without SOAS log-in. However, some full-texts do require SOAS log-in.
  • KISS [Korean-studies Information Service System] contains Japanese full-text articles published in Korea.
  • When an article is not found in the databases above, try Google Scholar .
  • Articles not available in London libraries can be obtained through the Interlibrary Loan Service.